Finally, we get a glimpse of what the real future of Canadian soccer might be.

Tuesday it will be on display in Montreal in the Under-20 World Cup, when Canada plays North Korea in its toughest game of the tournament so far.

Canada is 1-1 and in order to assure qualification for the next round, needs to win. They can qualify with a tie and even a loss, if things break their way, but a win makes it a sure thing.

The best, young women players in Canada are on that U20 team. That is the future of soccer in this country.

The real future is packed into a 5-foot-5 body. For the record, the body belongs to 16-year-old Londoner, Jessie Fleming.

She’s played all 180 minutes for Canada as a central midfielder, one of the most difficult positions in soccer, and she’s done it against players who, for the most part, are at least two years older than she is.

There is no doubt she is, and will continue to grow, into a wonderful talent for Canada.

That’s important.

But what’s more important is what she represents and how she got there.

It doesn’t matter what her gender is. It doesn’t matter where she’s from or that she’s young.

What matters is she’s proof that given the right coaching, training and building blocks, Canada can produce quality players capable of reaching the top level.

For years young soccer players have been raised in an environment that sells winning. Winning is the most important quality coaches and parents have drilled into their children. Score goals so your name appears at the top of the scoring lists. For the most part teams were put together to win. Find the biggest, fastest, toughest player at a certain age. Find enough of them and you can put a team together that’s bigger, faster and tougher than other kids in your age group.

For the most part, that’s enough to win games and trophies. It doesn’t matter players only play the game, instead of learning how to play the game; it doesn’t really matter that the players can’t think the game through, instead of understanding what they are doing. All that matters is they win because they are bigger, stronger and faster.

At least for now.

There is still more of that at the upper levels of soccer than there should be. A player is big and strong, but can’t control the ball. A player is quick, but has no idea what to do with the ball when he or she has it. A player has the skills, but can’t think through the next step after he or she has the ball.

Fleming is the new breed of soccer player in Canada.

She’s not the new breed of soccer player. No way. Countries have been producing this kind of exceptional talent for years.

But for Canada, Fleming is the blueprint of the kind of player this country has to produce.

Fleming was 15 when she made her first appearance with Canada’s national senior women’s team.

Her performance in the U20 tournament gets stronger with every appearance. The errors she makes are errors of inexperience and her youth.

Remember that she’s barely five months into her 16th year.

Watch her carefully and what you’ll see is a Canadian rarity . . . a natural midfielder and one who plays the middle to boot.

Her running background gives her marvelous athleticism allowing her to cover a lot of the field. She’s tough and sticks her nose into anything she can. She’s also highly skilled. She can take the ball on the

fly, hold the ball when she needs to allow attackers to get forward and she isn’t shy about taking a shot if it’s available.

For a 16-year-old, her patience and ball distribution is remarkable. She reads the game, understands where the ball has to go and is adept and making the pass that cuts through the defence.

Remember that she’s barely five months into her 16th year.

The repetition is warranted because she will continue to improve. She will grow a little, get stronger and the more experiences she lives the more she’ll understand the game.

She’s one of the lucky people that are athletically gifted but you don’t have to be a dominant athletic specimen to be good at the game.

Many great soccer players were not the fastest, biggest or most agile of players but had great careers.

But every one of them was taught the skills of the game and how to play it.